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Avoid the 'Magic Bullet Mistake'

Guest post by: JD Solomon

Article Overview: "Of course we need to do marketing, but isn't there a way to do it without the expense, time and hassles of traditional techniques? What about all this I hear about viral and social marketing? Can't we just do that?" If that sounds familiar, you're about to make the Magic Bullet Mistake.

Avoid the 'Magic Bullet Mistake'

A few months ago a client asked me to help her company increase its awareness. She had a great technology product and sales were growing steadily, but most buyers in her industry still hadn’t heard of the company or its product.

This lack of recognition was deeply frustrating to the CEO because her product was unique and highly effective, and she believed her company should be perceived as a leader in its field.

To me, the low brand awareness was not surprising because the company had never done any advertising or PR. Until recently, it just hadn’t had the money. But now, with the increase in sales and a new injection of capital by its investors, the funds for an awareness-building campaign appeared to be available.

After a couple weeks of research and planning, I returned to the client to present my recommendations. I explained that to be seen as a leader a company must act like a leader, meaning it has to maintain a high profile. I laid out a program of advertising, trade shows and public relations, and I discussed timeframes and budgets.

While I was talking about time and costs I glanced at my client and realized I’d lost her.

“You know,” she said when I’d finished, “this seems like a very traditional marketing plan to me. I was really hoping for something more innovative … something more out-of-the-box. You know, like this viral marketing I’m hearing so much about.”

Reading between the lines, here’s what I realized she was really saying: Traditional marketing tactics may be good enough for traditional companies, but we’re a special-different-smarter company, so we should be using special-different-smarter marketing tactics. And by the way, it would be really good if they’re cheaper and faster, too.

I call this the Magic Bullet Mistake. It’s the belief that there are some secret and simple new marketing strategies out there that will get customers flocking to your door without the time, expense and hard work associated with traditional marketing tactics like advertising, trade shows and public relations. It’s the conviction that if you just hire a smarter marketing consultant or read the next business best-seller, you can get the answer you want.

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet. The fact is, marketing requires that you communicate to prospective customers. And until someone invents a way to do that telepathically, your foundation communications choices are the still the basics: advertising, PR, trade shows, mailings, videos and online tactics. And yes, they're costly.

Can you be creative and innovative in how you use these tactics? Of course. Should you experiment with social network marketing and other leading-edge tactics? Absolutely. But is there a way to replace traditional tactics with some kind of faster, cheaper, “new age” marketing methods? Sorry; no.

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Article Tags: magic bullet, marketing mistakes, social marketing



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